Why the GoaT?

On the publication of my governance guide-cum-memoir,“How to be a great GoaT – a guide to being a brilliant Governor or a Trustee”, here are a few thoughts. 

Why the GoaT?

“You ought to write a book about it all,” said the friend who regarded the amount that I did voluntarily in education as evidence of insanity. “You’ve learned so much, why not share it?”

So I did. And what began as a straightforward ‘experience and learning’ sharing/guiding process has triggered some provocative thinking about how GoaTs must respond to some profound challenges.

When I started mapping it out, I wanted the book to be welcomed by governors and trustees; its messages apply equally. But the phrase ‘Governor or a Trustee’ was stylistically cumbersome and tediously repetitive.

So, when I saw the obvious acronym, it showed me the way to position and brand the book.

But why write it? And where does it lead? 

A new starting-point for GoaTs

In addition to the National Council of the SFCA, I’ve sat on numerous educational boards: sixth-form college, academy trust, maintained/community school – as governor, chair, trust member. Inducting new colleagues always revolved around process and responsibilities, with a good dollop of the Nolan Principles.

At no stage can I recall anyone explaining what great performance by individual board members actually looks like. Which attributes of our character, experience and know-how should we bring to the table? And what should we leave at the boardroom door?

This drove the central structure. First, identify and illustrate some of the key traits of great GoaTs – then show how they might play out across the main theatres of governance – strategy, performance management, financial oversight.

The challenges keep on coming

It’s one of the strangest and, I think, unique features of our state that crucial and complex decisions right across the educational landscape – schools, colleges, universities – are delegated to volunteers in the form of GoaTs.

Over a quarter of a million of us are asked to decide on high-pressure issues pivotal to our institution’s future. These can range from long-term strategy (such as determining an institution’s legal status) or crisis resolution (like confronting the existential consequences of structural deficits).

But they can equally be deeply uncomfortable, as when we need to adjudicate on a decision to exclude a learner permanently, or determine the validity of a complaint against the principal.

In no other part of the public realm are such burdens placed upon those who altruistically support vital hubs of their local communities.

A new mantra for GoaTs

Writing GoaT focused the mind on what it means to be a governor or a trustee. For some, it means little more than sharing expertise and experience with the intention of helping the college run better. But what happens when real challenges like the ones I mentioned above rear their heads?

Drafting pieces for Schools Week and the NGA’s Governing Matters while confronting long-term strategic and financial issues at one of my institutions led me to an image for great GoaTs…

Now I’m pretty sure that the last thing Delacroix had in mind was governors and trustees when he painted Liberty Leading the People. But his iconic image can inspire us when those difficult decisions hove into view. We must raise the banner high and trample over any personal discomfort to secure robust and equitable resolutions for our big challenges.

And it was contemplating this that I came upon a mantra to focus our attention on what should drive us to grasp the nettles that fate sends us:

If not now, when? If not us, who?

This pair of questions is the trigger for strategic decision-making. 'Must we confront this issue immediately?' And: 'Is there any other body or individual who should be taking the lead – and will they?'

There is always a tendency to avoid difficult decisions. An element of Micawberism (‘something’ll turn up’) can fuse with an innate instinct to put things off until the crisis becomes undeniable.

So, with a punctuation change, the mantra morphs from question to aspiration:

If not now, when! If not us, who!

And it is this spirit which GoaT seeks to inspire by identifying the attributes that will empower us to charge over the barricades of our own caution to seize the day and ensure our colleges are in charge of their own destiny.

If it were easy, how rewarding would it be? Nothing beats the feeling of envisioning a pathway, testing its salience to destruction … and then devising and driving a process that delivers it.

As more and more institutions are faced with massive challenges – funding, falling rolls, dilapidated buildings, recruitment and retention – hopefully, GoaT will come to their aid.

If not now, when! If not us, who!

Ian Phillips is founder of Clew Education, an education consultancy focused on governance and strategy, and a former national leader of governance. As chair of the board at Woodhouse SFC, he sat on SFCA's Council. If this blog has whetted your appetite, please consider clicking here to order his book in print or as an e-book from Amazon.